The changing story of evaluation practice in the Latin America and Caribbean region: New actors, needs and opportunities

During the last decade the debate about evaluation in the Latin American and the Caribbean region has increasingly addressed the need to use evaluation processes and results as drivers for change. Many evaluators feel a tension when conducting an evaluation that is available to sustain the status quo in a region that faces deep social justice challenges. A new story of evaluation is emerging from new perspectives and movements of feminist, participatory and young evaluators, among others. They are advocating for evaluation as a tool to sustain social change and transformation. Evaluation practice, along with its tools and approaches, needs to be changed to increase the intended use of evaluation as a tool for transformation. This story sees evaluation practitioners as change agents. In the LAC evaluation community, knowledge sharing spaces, such as regional conferences, a cross-cutting theme is to transform evaluation in order to transform society. Some of the improvement spaces addressed are: use of gender responsive evaluation tools, as well as an intersectional lens to evaluate, the use of culturally responsive evaluation tools and participatory methods to evaluate, and the development and use of evaluation approaches based in Latin American epistemological roots, that allow a better understanding of the cultural, social and institutional contexts. The presenter will share reflection about the emergence of new actors, need for transforming evaluation practice, and the opportunities to increase the contribution of evaluation to face the sustainable development gaps in the region.